Latest Google Chrome 29 Beta Offers Web Audio and Real Time Chat via the Browser for Android
"Its goal is to allow web developers to implement professional-quality audio production applications and modern game audio engines," Google's Chromium team explained in a blog post. "You can see it in action in the MIDI Synth demo, which works on Chrome for desktop, iOS, and, starting with today's beta, Android. Note that for this initial release on Android, the feature is only exposed on ARM devices that support NEON optimizations."
Chrome 29 also introduces WebRTC, which enables real-time communication such as videoconferencing in the browser. Three independent components are needed to make the magic happen. The first is getuserMedia, which grants access to the user's webcam and microphone. Second is PeerConnection, which is responsible for setting up calls and traversing NATs and firewalls. Lastly, DataChannels establishes peer-to-peer data communication between browsers.
These features have been in the desktop version of Chrome for awhile now, and with today's release, Android users gain the same real-time functionality.